I Had Plans and So did He! - A Dose of Encouragement

Yes I really had plans.

But the painters changed my plans.

I was going to have a special post today about Christmas Tree Ornaments but seeing as we can't get our tree up yet because of the painting of the house, my plans were ruined.


So I shall tell you about last Friday instead when yet again I had plans; but my plans were changed.
Notice I didn't say ruined this time because how the day turned out was not a ruin.


I may have mentioned before that I would love to have a

but alas even after all my overhauling of the house this year I am still so far from this ideal.

I could blame it on the painters at the moment and that would be a good excuse and a true reason because we had to clear out rooms to other rooms and that just causes more mess and lot's of things end up not even being in their proper rooms let alone being in their right, exact, place.

Anyway back to Friday.

It was Black Friday and when we lived in the US we did not go shopping on that day because of the crowds but of course in Northern Ireland we didn't have Black Friday - until this year.

I saw some things on the internet about shops having special sales over the weekend but did not register the fact that it was related to Black Friday and I just never linked any thought in my head to how that might mean busy, busy, shops and Shopping Centres. 

I had arranged to have coffee with 2 friends from church at 2.30pm in the town where our church is which is 20 mins from our home.  Then on Thursday night I decided that I would also go to a large Shopping Centre on Friday 10 mins further on from the town and get some Christmas Cards (there's another story for you sometime too), a wedding gift, some other little things and also post my Christmas cards that were ready to go to the US and South Korea.  I worked out the timing and knew what time I would have to leave home so that I would have plenty of time to do that and be back to meet my friends for coffee.

So on Friday morning after breakfast, my bible reading, emails, list made out for what I wanted to get, checking my blog post was finished & scheduled for that afternoon and a couple of cups of coffee I was ready to get my handbag and keys and head off.

That was when I couldn't find

(no not my keys)

 my little wallet with my credit card and debit card and store cards in it.

The search began!

I searched upstairs and downstairs and in the last few handbags I had used, then pondered over in my mind the last time I could remember using any of my cards and I couldn't remember.

Not having found it and not remembering anything to help me I prayed that I hadn't lost it outside the house and felt sure that I hadn't. Then I prayed that God would remind me where to look.

No inspiration came, and I have to say that type of inspiration has come often enough in the past, so I just started and searched all the same places again because I knew I must have just overlooked it.

Again no joy.

Now that had taken me quite some time.

I would not now have enough time to do all that I had intended and indeed did not have enough cash to do all of it.

My plans were ruined (well would at least have to be changed).

So I decided I would just go to the Post Office to post my cards and call in at the Bible Book Shop to get more Christmas Cards before that Coffee Date with my friends.

But even that was not going to happen.

As I drove along in the car I heard a message ding in my phone which lay in the front seat beside me.

I don't normally stop for a message but there was a good spot to pull in just a bit ahead so I did just that.

It was a message from a friend who had got some news that bothered her and I could tell she was quite upset and wasn't sure what to do about it.
I messaged back and said where I was and if she was home I could be with her in about 15 mins.
She said yes please and off I drove again.

I really did not have much experience in the matter that was troubling her so I prayed about what to do and suddenly remembered that another friend would know more than me.  This other friend lived on the way and I knew she was probably at home so I called her, explained briefly what had happened, and asked if she would like to come with me.

Give me 5 mins and I'll be ready, was her reply.

Well an hour later when our friend was feeling much better and things had been set in motion to sort out her situation I mentioned about how I had been planning to go to the Shopping Centre earlier but couldn't go because I couldn't find my cards.

The two of them laughed at me and said I wouldn't have wanted to be there because there had been trouble between shoppers because of Black Friday Bargains and the police had been called.

Not only would I have not wanted to be there when there was fighting over products but I would also have hated it being so busy.

So not being able to find my cards had stopped me being there.   

Good Change of Plans I was thinking.

Then I realised that if I had been at the Shopping Centre my phone would have been in my handbag and I would not have heard the message come in (anyone that knows me well will know that sometimes I don't even hear calls coming through).  I would not have known our friend needed help and I wouldn't have been available to take my other friend (who cannot drive at the moment) to help her .

So not being able to find my cards not only kept me from being at the Shopping Centre but meant that I was in the right place at the right time with the car to be of help.

Good Change of Plans I was thinking.

No. Great Change of Plans!

These are the things that may seem like little things, but these are the things that demonstrate how much God cares for each of us.

God cared that our friend was getting news that would upset her.
 He had the whole process in His plan so that she would know she was not on her own and by this I don't mean about us, I mean that God was with her and that He was in control of the situation.

Over an hour and a half later than arranged I was sitting having coffee with my friends.  Were they annoyed?   No, they were very gracious because they knew someone had needed a helping hand.

I really enjoyed that coffee and the scone with strawberry jam, that I probably should not have been eating, as we all laughed about the fact that I didn't know it was Black Friday.



Oh and the cards?

Well I found them on Saturday of course.



Where?

In one of the places I had searched twice on Friday!   Where else?

The Other Name Meanings Story - A Dose of Encouragement

2 weeks ago I wrote about the meaning of my name
and Fred's name - Our Name Meanings.

Today I want to tell you about the names we gave our 3 children.

In September 1982 Fred and I had a baby boy.

We did not know we were going to have a boy from a scan but we knew we would have a boy because of the name God had given us for our baby.

Some months before this on a Thursday night we had gone along as usual to the mid-week meeting in our church.  That night our Pastor was speaking on the relationship between David and Jonathan and approaching it from the true friend Jonathan was to David.

At the end of the meeting Fred and I just looked at each other and both said

that is the name for our baby

There was no doubt in our minds that we were to have a boy and we knew the name he was to have.

When September came

we had a boy and we called him 

Because we had felt so sure that this was the right name we had not thought to check the meaning of his name straight away but when we did we discovered that the name Jonathan is a Hebrew name and means

Well this was very true of this our first child because we had tried for some years but I had not become pregnant and we had really prayed for a child.


Two years later again in the month of September we were sitting in the hospital waiting for our second child to be born.  All through this pregnancy we had not thought of a name.

We did however believe it was going to be another boy (again not from a scan but we both felt God was giving us a boy) so as we sat there we prayed and asked God to help us find the right name.  We then went through the book of baby names for boys simply reading out each name in alphabetical order and with the idea of saying

yes,  no  or  maybe.

All through the A's we both just said no to each name and then the same for the B's and the C's we kept saying we should at least have a maybe, but it didn't happen.

Then in the D's we got to

and we both just said yes, and we were surprised that we did but we stopped there as we felt that was the name.

Later that day we had our second son and knew we had picked the right name which means

Three years later our third child was born at the end of December.

Now this time we had no idea whatsoever whether we were going to have a boy or a girl and we picked two names in advance.
   

Timothy and Linda.

This time I just kept saying that if we did have a girl I couldn't imagine her being called anything other than Linda and Timothy was a lovely character from the bible, plus doesn't Jonathan, Daniel and Timothy just sound so good.

Because we already had the two boys everyone kept saying things like

"I'm sure you are hoping for a girl this time"

or

"Oh you're going for the girl then?"

neither of which were true, we did not mind which God was giving us although I felt we were headed for another boy because I had not had any morning sickness throughout the first two pregnancies and this one was just the same.

However

God gave us

and all through her life she has been as happy with her name as I was with mine


maybe especially because


her name means

And don't you think that Jonathan, Daniel and Linda sounds really good?

Our children are now all in their 30's and we truly feel their names suited them perfectly.

We are so thankful that we can even trust God to give us the correct names for our children.

But then we do know that He cares about everything single thing about them.

The Names for this post were created with

4 Accidents and a ..... (pt1) - A Dose of Encouragement

Fred and I started going together 

            ..... when we were 16.

We went to different schools;  his an all boys Grammar School and mine an all girls Grammar School.  The two schools were located quite close together but not a lot of contact was made between the two (professionally).

However that year both schools offered their A level Mathematics students the opportunity to do a computer course at the City's Technical College each Tuesday afternoon and both of us took up the offer.

That meant we were able to see each other at the course and also to spend some time together after it.

Now Fred got a motorbike as soon as he was old enough and he started using it to go back and forward to school each day so he took me home on it after school.

My school uniform included a blue pleated skirt in which I could do a beautiful twirl and have the skirt fan out but as cute as that might have been (not true really) it was not the most suitable attire for riding on the back of a motorbike.

 Okay the obvious thing was to change into a pair of trousers on leaving school so that I could ride on the bike.

                                           No way was that allowed.  

Our school had a strict rule that when seen anywhere out of school we must be wearing the FULL school uniform and not just part and of course to go to the Tech we had to be in uniform as it was still part of the school day.

           Yes and full school uniform also meant a grey beret!!!

So for a few days I had been on the bike in my skirt trying to keep it tucked in around me and not bellowing up in the air, but having got fed up with that I decided that I would put on a pair of trousers over my skirt to travel to the Tech and home afterwards on the Tuesday.

During the computer course each week we had a mid afternoon break and this Tuesday Fred wanted to go back up to his school to get something so we hopped on the bike and started off towards the school going along one of the main streets of the city.  There were cars parked on each side of the road and suddenly I could see a car pulling out from a street on the right.  There was no time to stop and the car was into us just at the right of the front wheel of the bike.


I was thrown off the bike and landed hitting my head on the ground, thankfully Fred had been able to slow down so it was not a very forceful knock but I was still thankful for the helmet I had been wearing.

The driver of the car had just simply not noticed us coming (as still is so common with motorbikes) but as he was an older man and we were just students he did try to put the blame on us and then came out with the comment

                     "Just as well you were wearing that helmet girl"

No it was not

        Just as well I was wearing that helmet 

it was really

I was obeying the rules of the road (wearing a helmet) and he wasn't (when he pulled out when it was not safe to do so).

After sorting out about the accident and knowing that we were both ok we got back on the bike and went on with our afternoon.

We thanked God that He had protected us that day and even though we had had an accident no one was hurt and very little damage had been done.

It is so good to know that wherever we are and whatever we are doing God is with us and knows what lies ahead.  

However one thing was going round in my mind

Can you just imagine what I would have looked like if I had been wearing that school skirt?

So not only did I thank God for his protection in the accident
        but also for the fact that it had not happened on one of the previous days when I would have been wearing that skirt.


I believe that God cares about little details and he cared about what I would be wearing that day.

Do you believe he cares about the details of your life each day?




Click Here for part 2 in "4 Accidents and a ....."

I was going to miss the Butterflies - A Dose of Encouragement

When we lived in Belgium there was a strange type of bush that grew up high in the summertime at the front of our house.

So we never bothered to find out what type of bush this was.

Because we were renting the house the owner was responsible for the borders, shrubs and trees and all we had to do was cut the grass.

One day in July 2009
Fred and I were sitting in the house on our own when I saw a butterfly go past the front window.  Then just a few mins later I saw another one and then another and another.  I remarked to Fred that I had seen four of them and thought that was unusual.

Then when I saw another I walked over to the window to have a look to see if it was simply the same butterfly flying past different times or had we got a few hovering around.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw not one, not 5 but loads of butterflies all the same type sitting on that strange bush.  I called to Fred and we both opened the window and stepped out onto the balcony/veranda that stretched the length of the house.  We were able to stand there and see the butterflies close up and we counted 34 butterflies on that bush at the same time.

Fred went and got his camera and spent some time taking pictures of this awesome sight.

We stood for about 30 mins watching the butterflies as they fed on this bush, parts of which were showing the effects already.

We just stood and watched in amazement, not able to tear ourselves away from this beautiful sight.

How did all those butterflies know to appear at our bush on that one same day?

This was a day we will never forget, a unique day a quiet but awe inspiring day.

14 months later and we were in the throes of doing the inventory of our belongings in this house and organising to buy a house back in Northern Ireland.  The time had come to leave Belgium.

We had been back on a few different trips looking for a house and had fallen in love with one which had a lovely kitchen and Sun Room and nice bathrooms, almost the opposite to this one in Belgium.

At different times I would say about what I would miss about the house in Belgium but there were a lot of things I wouldn't miss.

One of the things I would miss was the fact that our house was in a lovely location enabling us to drive past the Tervuren Roundabout most days and that was a sight that put a smile on my face with it's beautiful fountain.

Another thing I was going to miss was the butterfly bush as I continued to call it even though by this time I had looked it up on Google and found out it was really called a "Buddlea".  I knew I was going to miss seeing the butterflies gathering there even though mostly we only saw a few at a time.  I have always loved butterflies and like things that are decorated with butterflies.

Along with all the friends we had made I knew that certain little things had made our 6 years in Belgium very happy and special to us and this simple bush was one of them.

Well in December of 2010 we left Belgium covered in snow and could hardly see what was left of the Buddlea bush which had been pruned back excessively and was practically hidden by the bush in front of it

We moved to Northern Ireland also covered in snow and were very busy moving in the week leading up to Christmas.     

The New year passed by and quite a few months also as we continued to get settled in.

We were going to miss the Butterflies!

Then one day we realised that a bush in our new front garden which had been rather scrawny looking when we arrived was now growing up tall, then a while later it started to flower and you can image our surprise and delight to discover that we had a Butterfly Bush at our new home.

We had even taken a family picture in front of the bush a few days after moving in not realising what it was.

Now we have never had 34 butterflies on this bush in Northern Ireland but in the past few summers we have regularly seen 5 or 6 at a time.  Maybe someday they will all come but because of our open location at the top of a hill we may never get a mass of butterflies like we did that day in Tervuren.

It is hard to move home and to move from one country to another.  It is hard to leave people & things behind

So thank you God that I don't have to say  "I miss the butterflies".

Who can say that God doesn't care about how we feel when we see that he gave us another Butterfly bush in our new home!